I don't know Jack Flash. Do you think it would be possible to go from Zero to Competition-grade Flash game in time? I did something similar with Torque Game Builder for the Accessibility Game Contest, but I don't know if that was a one-time fluke or if it is repeatable with Flash. Can any of our resident Flash experts chime in with some of their thoughts? Are there any freeware or open source tools available to make building Flash games easier or do I need to fork out hundreds of dollars to Adobe?
-tinjaw
I was looking for a good ActionScript editor the other day and mouser pointed me to
FlashDevelop, which appears to be freeware/donationware. It comes with (a possibly outdated version of)
SWFMill, which, if I understand the description correctly, is an Open Source (GNU) program that can create asset libraries (graphics/fonts) into swf files for importing. It can do more than that but I haven't looked into it beyond the front page description.
As for going from 0 to hero in a month in Flash, I'd tend to agree with mouser. I'm not saying it's impossible. It depends on how much time you can devote to it. As for my own skill level, I can't say that I'm incredibly skilled with the programming side of Flash. You could probably reach my skill level fairly quickly, especially if you're already familiar with coding and even more so if you're already familiar with programming in ECMAScript.
Give it a try on your own or I would be very happy to have some help and collaborate on a game with you. I am just starting to get familiar with OOP so if you know how to write custom classes and things like that, your help would be very... uh, helpful.
sounds very good but i've never played one of these tower games so i'll need a few hints.
-nudone
Well get playing some of them!
Mouser and I have been thinking about a macroscopic garden theme. With plants and cute little bugs and things. And Cody. The simpleness of your artwork on Cody makes me think you'd have no problem coming up with other little bugs in a similar art style. I'll talk with mouser more about it (or maybe he can just talk to you about it) to figure out more specific ideas for what the plants and bugs look like.
Ooh, I just had an idea! The object of the game could be to protect some kind of flower in the center of the screen while bugs attack at it from all angles. The flower in the middle needs time to bloom and when it blooms the petals open up to reveal a big coin. After which time Cody swoops down (he's really, really big compared to the bugs) and snatches the coin away. Level complete. Each level takes the flower longer to bloom and the bugs become stronger and/or come more frequently.
The creatures defending the flower could be something like ants, with army bugs, drone bugs, worker bugs, etc. The creatures attacking the flower will steal nectar from it (maybe the nectar hardens into the coin at the end?) and you have to attack the thief bugs. If the thief bugs start to take away the nectar they have to go back across the screen to get away from you. You can attack them and retrieve the nectar back all the way until they leave the screen, but you need special nectar bugs to retrieve the stolen nectar and return it to the flower. Defending these bugs will be a priority because the thief bugs will go for the closest source of nectar, even if that means attacking your nectar harvester bugs.
So how do some of these ideas sound?
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Has anyone tried to remote from a computer you're remoting to? Or trying to have the remote computer remote back to the one you're sitting at? 
Works fine at home. 
